Electric drones booked via smartphones take people to office rooftops, cut commute times by hours, reduce the need for parking, and remove smog from the air.

This vision of the future is at the origin of the Japanese government’s “flying car” project. Major carrier All Nippon Airways, electronics company NEC Corp. and more than a dozen other companies and academic experts hope to have a roadmap ready by the end of the year.

“It’s such a new sector that Japan has a good chance of not falling behind,” said Fumiaki Ebihara, the government official in charge of the project.

Nobody believes that people will be riding in flying cars anytime soon. Many hurdles remain, such as battery life, the need for regulation, and of course security issues. But dozens of similar projects are emerging around the world. So far, the prototypes look less like traditional cars and more like drones big enough to hold people.

A flying car is defined as an electric, or hybrid electric, aircraft with driverless capabilities that can land and take off vertically.

They are often referred to as EVtol, which stands for “electric vertical take-off and landing” aircraft.

Flying car concepts promise to be better than helicopters, which are expensive to maintain, noisy to fly and require trained pilots, say Ebihara and other proponents.

“You can think of ‘Back to the Future,’ or ‘Gundam,’ or ‘Doraemon,'” Ebihara said, referring to flying vehicles in Hollywood film and Japanese robot cartoons. “Until now it was just a dream, but with innovations in motors and batteries, it’s time for it to become a reality.”

Google, drone company Ehang and automaker Geely in China, and Volkswagen AG in Germany have invested in flying car technology.

Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. said they had nothing to say about flying cars, but Toyota Motor Corp. recently invested $500 million in a collaboration with Uber on self-driving technology for the ride-sharing service. Toyota Group companies have also invested 42.5 million yen ($375,000) in a Japanese startup, Cartivator, which is working on a flying car.

The hope is to fly and light the torch at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but it’s unclear if it will achieve that goal: In a demonstration last year, the device crushed after rising slightly above eye level. A video of a more recent demonstration suggests it now flies more stable, although it is being tested indoors, unmanned and chained so it doesn’t fly away.

There are many skeptics.

Elon Musk, chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc., says even toy drones are noisy and blow a lot of air, meaning anything “1,000 times heavier” isn’t practical.

“If you want a flying car, just put wheels on a helicopter,” he said in a recent interview with podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan on YouTube. “Your neighbors won’t be happy if you land a flying car in your yard or on your roof.”

Although the Japanese government has resisted Uber’s efforts to offer ride-sharing services in Japan, limiting it to partnerships with taxi companies, it has eagerly welcomed the American company’s work on EVtol machines.

Uber says it sees Tokyo as its first launch city for affordable flights through its UberAir service. It lists Los Angeles and Dallas, Texas, and locations in Australia, Brazil, France, and India as other possible locations.

Unlike regular airplanes, with their aerodynamic design and twin wings, Uber’s “Elevate” structures look like small jets with multiple propellers on top. The company says it plans flight demonstrations as early as 2020 and commercial service by 2023.

Uber’s vision calls for using rooftop helipads, but new multi-storey construction similar to car parks will likely be needed to accommodate EVtol planes if the service takes off.

Unmanned drones are legal in Japan, the United States, and other countries, but there are restrictions on where they can fly and requirements for obtaining prior approval. In Japan, drone pilots can get a license if they take courses. There are no requirements like driving licenses for cars.

Flying passengers over populated areas would make a leap forward in technology, overhauling aviation regulations and air traffic security checks, as well as major efforts both to ensure safety and to convince people that’s for sure.

Uber said during a recent presentation in Tokyo that it was considering a route between the city’s two international airports, among others.

“It’s not a rich man’s toy. This is a consumer solution,” said Adam Warmoth, product manager at Uber Elevate.

Flying car concepts vary widely. Some look like vehicles with multiple propellers on top while others look more like a boat with a seat above the propellers.

Ebihara, the head of flying cars at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, says Japan is on board for a ‘Blade Runner’-style journey – despite its plentiful, efficient and well-developed public transport .

Japan’s automotive and electronics industries have the technology and capability to produce ultra-lightweight materials that could give the nation an edge in the flying car business, he said.

Just as the automobile defeated horse-drawn carriages, moving transport a short distance through the air could in theory bring about a dramatic change in the way people live, Ebihara said, pointing to the sky outside the ministry building to point out how empty it was compared to the streets below.

Flying also has the look of a bird’s eye view, the stuff of drone videos increasingly used in film, tourism promotion and journalism.

Atsushi Taguchi, a “drone grapher” as drone video specialists are called, expects test flights can be made even though flying cars won’t become a reality for years since the technology basis for stable flight already exists with recent advances in sensors, robotics and digital cameras.

A growing labor shortage in deliveries in Japan is adding to the pressures to realize such technology, although there are risks, said Taguchi, who teaches at the Tokyo Digital Hollywood film school.

The propellers of drones sold commercially today are dangerous, and some of his students have lost fingers due to improper flying. Larger propellers needed for vertical flight would increase risk and may need to be covered.

Devices might need parachutes to soften forced landings, or might need to explode into small pieces to ensure that the pieces hitting the ground would be smaller.

“I think one of the biggest hurdles is security,” Taguchi said. “And anything that flies will by definition crash.”